Shadow Children series 1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This story takes place in the future, so some things will be different than some things today.**

Rain drops strung on a spider web between two large oak trees, twinkled in the pale sunlight. A slight breeze rustled through the leaves of the trees. Mist hung in the damp air; the majority of the sun's rays were hidden amongst the thick ash gray rain clouds. A discrete sycamore tree in a clearing was in full bloom, its fruit expanding a little each week. A family of squirrels nested in a hole in the flaking bark.

Three children, all third born, sat perched in the lush green trees of the mountains. Their eyes concealed from view by forest brown cloaks, scanned the open clearing. Willis, the youngest by a year, laid perfectly balanced on a thick branch. Tucker had the same birthday as the only girl in the small group, Freda (which she pronounced Fray-dah, but Tucker pronounced Fred-a to make her infuriated.) The two were both thirteen. None of the three had any blood relation to each other what so ever. All of them had very different personalities.

Willis was the quietest of the three, preferring to keep things to himself. He was timid and shy around not just strangers, but his friends as well. He keep many secrets locked up inside his heart. He did not trust his two friends as well as he should. He liked to sing to himself, play the wooden flute and listen to music.

Freda was very adventuresome and possessed the position of leadership in the group. She was incredibly brave; laughing at danger and never backing down. She could be slightly harsh, but had a soft side to her that enjoyed running and playing all day long, but she would restrain from such things and act very mature.

Tucker was very kind when he wished to be, but was immensely stubborn; rebellion always bursting out of him. He despised being told what to do and what not to do. He simply went around doing his own thing, unbothered by the world around him. He just liked to be himself.

But they all had certain rules they had to abide by, no matter what. Even Tucker dared not break one of the important rules. Freda had carved the rules into the trunk of the monstrously large tree they lived in so no one would ever forget.

One: Never under any circumstances, not be hidden. You must always be cloaked or hooded; the majority of your face concealed from others' view. Act as 'shadows.'

Two: Hunt at day and night. If you are resting but see a hare hope past, kill it. Food is valuable in survival. Don't ever eat it, put it in the food supply pile in the hole near the top of the tree and put the rock back in place inside the hole, covering it.

Three: Split the amount of food we get for the day. No one gets a larger portion than someone else. If one person steals some extra, they will have no breakfast the next day. Our only meals are breakfast and dinner, so it's best you don't steal food.

Four: Never reveal your true identity to anyone. We must all go by our nicknames even when we are just amongst ourselves. You never know who may be listening; watching.

Five: Pray every night. God will listen.

The three children, Blossom (Freda), Wind Chime (Willis) and Skipping Stone (Tucker) were forbidden to live. This Earth no longer allowed families to have more than two children each. They all were third children, outlaws in the governments' eyes. The kids had all ran away from their homes, never again to see their siblings or their parents. Danger was at every corner. If they got found out, they would surely be doomed to die a long painful death. They could not risk it. So they fled to the mountains together.

Freda and Willis had grown up as friends since they had first met when they were babies; Freda aged at one and Willis aged at a month. They were neighbors, their parents dear friends. They both spent their lives hiding together in cupboards and attics when the government officials came to inspect the house for anything 'out of the ordinary.' They had met Tucker, a full blooded Native American from Arizona, when his family had moved to South Dakota. He had been found out by the government so his entire family moved.

The group of three felt so very safe when their families had visited the Black Hills in western South Dakota. Their parents decided the mountains would be so much safer for their children, so they let them live there. They came to visit every once in a while. Only they and the kids knew the exact location of what they called Doe Tree that they lived in. So many female deer would pass under the tree that they had named it that.

Freda, Tucker, and Willis had no worries over tourists to the Black Hills. They never came. Ever since the main tourists spots: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and Custer State Park had been demolished and more forest trees planted in their place, no one ever visited. The Black Hills were now said to be haunted. The people who did come were scared off by 'ghosts haunting the park.' The kids would 'haunt' people by hiding in the thick trees and screaming: 'GO AWAY! THIS IS OUR HOME!' They had so cleverly planted three tombstones by their tree that they had found far off in an Indian burial ground. This scared tourists because they could never find where the voices came from since Freda was in one tree, Willis in another, and Tucker in a cluster of bushes.

Tucker sat on alone on a branch further away than the ones Willis and Freda were on. His hair was short, coarse and black. He brushed his fingers over his reddish brown arm. He felt so different. Indians were becoming scare at this time. He looked over at Willis with his fair skin and light brown curly hair that came down to the bottom of his neck. He gazed over at Freda and her blond curly hair that came to her mid-back and her tan skin. They were so different. They weren't part of an endangered group of Indians. He didn't even know what his tribe was called. There were so few, so very few, left. He sighed. It was a sorrowful feeling of being endangered and an outlaw for being born.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Sorry for this chapter being so regrettably short. I've been quite busy over the past few days. I hope you enjoy it anyways.**

Willis woke when the sun had not yet risen in the black sky. Freda slept a few branches away, her hair tangled on a twig. Willis skillfully moved from branch to branch, over to his comrade.

"Here." he whispered, untangling her hair with his nimble fingers. He smiled to himself at the sight of her gripping the branch for dear life in her sleep.

"So you are afraid of something... Heights?" he chuckled softly. She wasn't as 'fearless' as she had made him and Tucker think. The boy's eyes narrowed suddenly. Where was Tucker? He peered over the edge of the tree bark. So he wasn't in the tree, he wasn't on the ground; had he ran off, abandoning them? _I might as well go search for him, _he thought. He started down the tree, glad to have had much practice in climbing. He never once lost his footing and fell; he was climbing backwards, his face towards the tree bark. Upon reaching the bottom, he noticed something as he looked up. Freda was gone too. Had she not been there only a moment ago? Now was the time to shout out their names. He cared not if others heard him. He was alone. He was frightened.

"Freda! Tucker! Where are you!" Panicking, he raised his voice, "FREDA! TUCKER!" No replies came in the vast, seemingly empty mountains. Willis knew better than to wander off, but it may have been his only choice. He darted down the narrow, beaten down dirt path that had appeared overnight. Freda and Tucker had been kidnapped. The only question was, why hadn't he been kidnapped as well?

...

Tucker was thrown down onto the ground, his hands were tied behind his back. Freda gritted her teeth as she was slammed down next to him. She gazed up at her kidnapper, her eyes teary. It was a agile cloaked figure who had twisted like a cat and landed soundlessly on the soft earth when Tucker had pushed him out of the tree. All she could see of him were his hands and his dark forest green eyes.

"Reveal yourself, foul man!" Freda demanded, her voice cracking from fright. The man shrugged, letting his hood drop to his shoulders. He appeared about sixteen years old, but had shaggy pale gray hair. He settled down on the ground next to them,

"I have been watching you for days." he informed them after a long moment of silence. Freda looked him in the eyes.

"How do you know who we are; why have you captured us? Willis will come find us, I assure you." she snapped.

"Oh, him? He will be dealt with by my older sister. He won't last five minutes in her grasp." he remarked, surprisingly calm. He clicked his tongue.

"My name is Moth, I am a spy." he hissed.


	3. Chapter 3

Moth stared hard at the two children seated on the ground before him. He wasn't suppose to tell them he was a spy, but did it really matter? They weren't going anywhere so they couldn't tell a soul.

"A spy! For the Government!" Tucker blurted out. Freda smacked her hand over his mouth. She shot him a sharp biting look that made him look away after he pried her fingers off his mouth. She stood up suddenly.

"Moth?" she asked softly. He nodded, waiting for her to continue. "You won't turn us into the Government, will you? We are just kids. It's not our fault we were born as third children..." her voice trailed off. Tears started to collect in her eyes. This wasn't fair. Death surely awaited them, even though they had done nothing wrong. He sighed,

"Afraid so. I have to. Times are tough. A job is a job." He whistled shrilly. Leaves on the trees rustled nervously as two black muscular horses galloped into the small clearing. "I've come to take you both away. Get on the horses!" the spy barked.

...

Willis searched high and low for his friends. He searched in the trees, in bushes, in caves. They had disappeared without a trace. What would he do without them? A pair of bright green eyes peered out of a bush flanking the left side of the lost boy. He had never been in this part of the mountains before. As he advanced forward, the eyes would vanish then reappear a few moments later in a closer bush. Willis had no idea he was being followed. The creature was swift and quiet.

After walking for some time, he collected many thick sticks and settled down next to a cool stream. The water trickled and sploshed as he worked on sharpening the sticks with rocks. After he had sharped all five of them, he got to work on attempting to spear small fish that swam past. After an aggravating half hour, he successfully caught two fish.

The fire a few feet from the stream sputtered and crackled, casting shadows in the dark night. Willis had made it unnaturally fast, glad to have had much practice in doing so. Mountain lions prowled the Black Hills constantly. He cooked the fish over the fire and drank some juice from berries he had salvaged from a dying bush. He knew these berries were not poisonous, he had seen squirrels shove them down their gullets. Squirrels could not eat poisonous berries and live like birds could.

He stretched and yawned. He would continue his search for Tucker and Freda at dawn. Dusk had veiled over the mountains. Willis knew better than to travel in the dark. Besides, fatigue had took over. He could barley stay away. As he closed his eyes, the last thing he saw was the fire going out and the reflection in the water of a young woman towering over him.


	4. Chapter 4

Freda began to get drowsy. Her heart pounded in sync with the drumming of horses hooves on the earth. Tucker was settled on the other horse. He rode alone. Then she noticed the stallion stayed immensely close to the mare she and Moth were on. There was no way fro him to escape.

The first light of day peeked in through the branches of the trees. The wind was damp and hot. Moth slowed the horses to a stop. A black van was parked in a clearing; the windows were tinted. Moth slid of the mare and approached the van.

"Get in." he said, opening the back doors. His voice was not harsh, but sad. Tucker jumped down, then helped Freda off her horse.

"Let's run." he whispered in her ear.

"But Willis-"

"Willis is gone! He abandoned us!" Tucker snarled. His friend placed a hand on his shoulder. Her eyes gazing into his seemed to calm him down. She mouthed, let's go. He nodded. Peering over their shoulders to make sure Moth wasn't going to follow, the two started off.

Freda was tackled by a abrupt force. Moth had bowled her over. Beads of sweat formed on the girl's brow. She struggled under her attacker's weight, but he was just too heavy. Over to her left was Tucker pinned down by a young woman around Moth's age. It was Moth's adopted Asian sister, Katsura. She was named after an Asian tree.

"AHHHHHHH!" came a yelp from above. Katsura and Moth both dropped their guard for only a moment. That moment was enough for the trapped children to punch and kick their way to freedom. Something dropped down from the trees; it snarled.

"Thisss clearing isss my home!" the creature hissed in a raspy voice. Neither the kids or the young adults had ever seen anything like it. The beast was human sized with multicolored snake skin. It wore only a pair of really short pants with blood splotches here and there on it. The snake boy crouched down; clawing at the ground he demanded,

"Leave here! Never come back, you rapssscallions!" Moth shakily moved out of Freda's way. Katsura did the same with Tucker.

"You should of just come with us. Now you're snake food." Katsura remarked.

"We will be back, bringing reinforcements. Who knew kids could be so tough? Any who, I really do hope to see you all again. I've started to like you kids. See you soon, if you aren't dead." Moth said cheerily. He and Katsura fled to their van. The engine roared to life. It disappeared deep into the misty woods.

The snake boy laid down on his stomach, grinning wickedly. He crossed his arms in front of him, resting his chin on them.

"Ssso? What to do with you tasssty kidsss?" he laughed. Freda trembled. Tucker put an arm around her.

"Cut it out, Willis. You are scaring poor Freda to death." he snickered. Willis got to his feet. He bowed while Tucker clapped.

"You even fooled me at first too! Excellent performance!" he cheered. Snake boy winked.

"I had to rub gloppy mud all over my body then plaster different snake skins from serpents I killed, on me. Then I rubbed blood from the dead reptiles on my shorts. Too bad... I really liked these shorts..." his voice trailed off. His friends stared at him.

"Guess how I escaped from Katsura's clutches? I pretended to be dead. Um.. Do you guys hear that? It sounds like a police siren!" Sure enough sirens wailed. The sound got closer with every heartbeat. Tucker shook Willis' shoulders.

"Your acting was good enough to fool Moth and Katsura, but what about real policemen!" he yelled in his face. Willis pushed him. Freda grabbed his wrist.

"Act dead!" He obeyed her. The two juveniles suddenly collapsed on the ground. Willis towered over them, the suspense from the slowly approaching police making him shake.


End file.

Shadow Children series, Adventure, Friendship